Sanbeiji (Three Cup Chicken)
One of the most common dishes from China’s Jijangxi province is well known today, especially in Taiwan. It is also commonly eaten in Malaysia. According to the descriptions, the food gets its name from the fact that a cup of sesame oil, a cup of soy sauce, and a cup of rice wine or Chinese food wine are used to prepare the dish. It is a slightly different food than you can get in classic European Chinese restaurants.
Preparation time: about 40 minutes
Level: Easy
Serves: two to four
Ingredients:
4 bone-in and boneless chicken drumsticks or regular chicken drumsticks
1 medium garlic, garlic cloves either left whole or sliced
A piece of fresh ginger about 5-6 cm long, cut into wheels
5-6 stalks of green onions cut into 5-6 cm long pieces
100 ml of sesame oil
200 ml light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
200 ml Chinese rice wine or Chinese food wine (Shaoxing wine)
2 tbsp brown sugar
A large handful of basil leaves, preferably Thai basil leaves
Serve with basil leaves and boiled rice
Preparation:
- Peel the ginger and cut it into rounds, peel the garlic cloves and slice them, or leave them whole if you like.
- Cut the green onion into 5-6 cm long pieces.
- Heat the sesame oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and brown the ginger and garlic on high heat for about 30 seconds, add the pieces of green onion, mix, and make a space in the middle of the pan for the chicken.
- Add the chicken pieces, skin side down, lower the heat on the stove to medium, and brown the chicken pieces for about 5 minutes.
- Add both soy sauces and cooking wine and sugar, reduce the heat on the stove to low, and simmer the chicken until it is soft (about 20-25 minutes) under the lid, which you could leave ajar so that the steam escapes and the sauce thickens a little. Turn the chicken pieces over during stewing to evenly season them.
- While the chicken is stewing, boil the finished rice. I made sticky rice. I used sushi rice for this, but any rice with a high starch content will do. To do this, rinse the rice briefly in water, pour it into the cooking pot, add twice as much water as the rice, lightly season with sea salt, and let it rise to boil. When the rice is boiling, cover the pot and let the rice simmer on very low heat until the water is absorbed.
- Before serving the chicken, remove the roasting pan from the stove, add a large handful of basil leaves, and mix into the food. The leaves wilt in the heat but do not lose their aroma and taste.
Serve hot with sticky rice.
Ready!!
